Version 2 is the one I learned from my mom, but I feel frustrated that so many fine old southern expressions are incomprehensible to the folk musicians of today :-). Which is to say, I don't think you should sing "give me cracked corn" or "gimmie cracked corn" as the chorus of this song, because it ain't right and it ain't traditional. The phrase is "Jimmy crack corn, and I don't care."

The way Mommy (who grew up in small towns in Georgia) explained it to her little girls is, "Jimmy crack corn and I don't care, the massa's gone away" means "Jimmy has opened a jug of corn whiskey and I am so heart broken at the master's death, I don't even care whether I drink any or not."

Dick, I wish you'd fix that one. I never knew anyone who learned it in the oral tradition who sang anything but "Jimmy Crack Corn."

- Rita Ferrara, who can get a teensy bit curmudgeonly when she has a strong attachment to what she considers the "real words."